Oberursel, Germany

East Side Gallery

East Side Gallery

East Side Gallery

CA alum

Lunch line at Berlin Pavilion

Reichstag building

Reichstag building

inside Reichstag building

inside Reichstag building

Glass dome atop Reichstag building

Brandenburg Gate

Holocaust Memorial

Unter den Linden

Ampelmann Shop

Gelato

Our first full day in Berlin was a very busy one!  We got things started with a visit to the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall.  Artists from all over the world were invited to paint murals on the east side of this 1.3km wall segment as both a celebration of the fall of the wall and a reflection on the earlier division of the city.  From there, we moved on to the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Straße, where we were able to see how the wall was constructed and guarded and where some groups managed to build tunnels to escape from the East to the West. Then we stopped for a quick lunch at the Berlin Pavilion, where we were joined by CA alum Addie E., who is currently doing a research project at the Bundestag.   After lunch we headed to the Reichstag building for a tour, including a visit to the building’s glass dome where we were able to take in some nice views of the city.  Our next stop was the Brandenburg Gate area and the nearby Holocaust Memorial.  From there, we took a stroll down Unter den Linden, the grand boulevard leading from the Brandenburg Gate to the city palace and cathedral.   Along the way we popped into the Ampelmann Shop, Berlin’s famous brand featuring the beloved East German pedestrian crossing figure.   Later in the evening we took a short stroll along the Spree river and enjoyed a group dinner and some gelato in the lively Hackescher Markt district.  We are looking forward to more adventures tomorrow, including a WWII bunker tour and a theater performance.

Viele liebe Grüße von uns allen aus Berlin!    ~Frau Greene

Hello everyone.
After a bumpy flight to Washington, a two-hour tarmac delay in DC due to thunderstorms, and a five-hour wait in Frankfurt after we missed our original connection, I am happy to report that our group finally arrived safe and sound in Berlin.   We checked into our hotel in the charming Nikolaiviertel (pictured above) and then enjoyed a quick dinner nearby before heading back to our rooms for some much-needed sleep.  Tomorrow our adventures will begin in earnest, starting with our first glimpses of what remains of the Berlin Wall.

For now all the best from the German capital!
~Frau Greene

Frankfurt

Oberursel

Feldbergschule

This blog will serve as a record of the 2024 Cary Academy student exchange trip to Germany.  We hope that you enjoy following along on our adventures as we tour Berlin and visit our friends at the Feldbergschule in Oberursel near Frankfurt.  Below is a video preview of some of the sights that await us in the German capital and in our host community.

Today, we started out with another class period at the Feldbergschule before taking the train to visit the Goethe University of Frankfurt Main. There, we had a brief walk before stopping at one of the common areas for some refreshments courtesy of Frau Griesing. Next, we went on a proper tour of the campus with our tour guide, and then stopped for lunch at the cafeteria. From there, we went to an Anne Frank museum for a couple hours which had lots of different activities and stations to visit and interact with. Some of these covered more specific details about Anne Frank’s life, namely her diary and its publication, but many covered topics such as racism, sexism, and homophobia, and how we should become a more accepting society. Then, we took a train to the Bad Homburg fire station where we had a short tour of the building and saw all of the different vehicles that they have for different emergency scenarios. Lastly, we wrapped up the day with all the exchange families at the station and had a great time eating dinner and playing games like foosball, which was a fantastic way to end out the trip! ~Cade

Today we travelled to the lovely city of Heidelberg. As I told my exchange buddy’s family, Heidelberg is the epitome of how Americans imagine Germany. The city of Heidelberg is quite beautiful, sporting a castle, gentle mountains, and houses nestled between curving streets. The American fascination with Heidelberg and cities similar to it was made apparent by the amount of tourists traversing the streets of Heidelberg. Everywhere I looked I saw German flags being sold (something a native German would never buy), classic German beer being touted, or English translations of German words. It was a bit disconcerting how tourist-centric the city was, but I still enjoyed visiting the Apothecary Museum, ducking into tiny shops and gawking at things I’d never buy, and ordering some German ice cream. ~Abby

Today I got to sleep in until 10:30 which was nice, so our day started a bit late. Throughout the day we went to a festival in Kronberg, went for a drive with Leonie (my exchange partner)’s friends, and had dinner with her parents. The festival was actually quite small, but there was Bratwurst so I can’t complain, and there was a show there with some acrobats that were having a dispute about…chess? I think it was chess; it was just entertaining, but there wasn’t much of a story.  (Again, not complaining, it was cool.) They were lifting each other up, pushing each other off of tables, and throwing white powder at each other. Y’know, just every day stuff. For the ride with Leonie’s friends, we went to a  castle ruin and we got to sit on a gazebo and look at the view.  Later, some of Leonie’s OTHER friends decided to shoot water guns at us.  Overall, today was awesome and I’m still dry, so moral of the story, if you want to shoot water guns at people and have it be worth it, get big ones.  ~Adora

After a late breakfast, we went to the Kronberg castle. This castle was built in the mid-1200s. It was used by the Lords of Kronberg and then Victoria Kaiserin Friedrich. Around the castle, there were beautiful gardens and flowers, including a tree that is over 200 years old, and the favorite sitting place of Victoria Kaiserin Friedrich. We also walked around the village of Kronberg, and stopped for lunch in the Altstadt. Then we went into Königstein, another town near Kronberg, and we saw the Königstein castle. This castle was also built in the mid 1200s. It is bigger than Kronberg. It also provides a nice view of the Feldberg.  Later, we made some chocolate chip cookies. We first made these when Sophia stayed in NC and they were very yummy, so I brought a bag of chocolate chips with the recipe on the back so we could make them again in Germany. They ended up being a bit flat but still very tasty.  In the evening, we met with one of Sophia’s friends and watched movie and made burgers.  Overall, it was a great day!  ~Jenna

The student originally assigned to write the June 2nd blog post did not travel with the group, so I am stepping in with a quick post in his place.

Our main activities at the Feldbergschule today  focused on the theme of human rights.  First, CA students had the opportunity to join FBS students for a presentation by two representatives of the International Justice Mission, a global organization dedicated to protecting people in poverty from human trafficking, violence against women and children, and police abuse of power.   Later, several CA students joined their exchange partners for a remembrance gathering connected to the Feldbergschule’s participation in the Stolpersteine project.  A Stolperstein (stumbling stone) is a small brass plate embedded in a sidewalk or a street that commemorates an individual victim of the Holocaust at their last known address prior to their deportation.  These stones are meant to “trip” everyday passers-by into an empathetic reflection on the life of the individual who once lived in that very street.  There are currently over 70,000 Stolpersteine in cities and towns across Germany and another 25,000 across Europe, reflecting the continental scale of the Holocaust while at the same time bringing the tragic event much closer to home.

We were moved by our experiences today and reminded of the importance of civil courage in the fight against bigotry and inhumanity in all its forms.

All the best from Oberursel!
~Frau Greene

Mainz cathedral

the Rhine river

houses along the Rhine

the Rhine river

Gutenberg Museum

the Gutenberg press

the Gutenberg press

Gutenberg Museum

Martin Luther’s bible

Mainz cathedral

inside the cathedral

old town Mainz

old town Mainz

old town Mainz

Mainzelentchen

semi-wildlife

ice cream stop

Mainzelmännchen

Mainzelfrösche

Today, the group went to Mainz, where we saw one of the widest- but shallowest- sections of the Rhein. It’s a beautiful river with nice nature on both sides, in and around the city.

I found the city to be an interesting mix of modern and older buildings, which were more intermixed than in Oberursel and Bad Homburg–the bombing during WWII clearly left many open spaces that were refilled with newer architecture, and though there was a small old city section, the historical buildings were not confined to that area.

The Gutenberg Museum was quite interesting–the guide explained not only the surprisingly complicated process of the first printing presses, but also several common but false myths about Gutenberg.  I was very interested to learn that his most commonly cited claim to fame besides the printing press, the creation of the first German bible, was in fact untrue.

After the museum, we checked out the nearby Mainz cathedral, which was…interesting.

After that, we spread out for lunch.  It was rather jarring to see a regular McDonalds across the street from a historical church, but the other food places in the city were quite good! Lunch was followed by ice cream, which attracted a visit from the local, and very brave, semi-wildlife, which was much more willing to get close to humans than any I’ve seen in the US.

Besides the ride back, that was basically the entire day.  I came back to my host home and was tired enough by the long walks and hot weather to just relax for a bit and write this post, since there won’t be any time tonight for any other activities of note.  ~Zachary